A funny thing about travel is that you’re going to spend a huge amount of time doing just about nothing. When you think about a journey you probably see yourself checking out new things, eating interesting food, meeting new people, but I’m willing to bet that you generally don’t see yourself sitting around doing nothing for hours each day. But this is the reality of travel. All too often, this profession is an exercise in waiting. I’ve never been anal enough to record how long I spend waiting for meals in restaurants, waiting for a bus to leave, waiting for trains to arrive, sitting on the sides of highways waiting for buses to be fixed, standing in line, waiting for my travel companions to get ready to go, but, on an average day of travel, I know that this time can often be measured in hours. It is in this “in between” time that I study foreign language.

I used to carry around a little notebook with me at all times that I reserved just for language learning. I would write down a short list of new vocab words each morning and then break it out and study whenever I had a free moment throughout the day. When I would discover a word or phrase that I did not know how to say I would make a note of it, translate it later, then add it to my list the following day.

These days I’ve been using Google Translate on a mobile phone in place of a notebook. This technological upgrade has made my previous paper and pencil method seem overtly archaic. Now I just type in the word/ phrase/ sentence that I want to know and it produces a good translation in the language that I’m working on. I still compile lists of vocabulary, but I now do so with Google Translate’s “star” function. Next to everything it translates there is a little star icon. If you press it it will add whatever you just translated to a list that you can later go back and refer to. Now instead of writing down my vocab lists I compile them digitally on my phone, a device that I carry with me pretty much all the time, and break it out dozens of times a day for short jaunts of language study.

So when I’m waiting for a train, riding in a taxi, bored on a long bus ride, sitting idle as a restaurant prepares my food, I take this passive, do-nothing time and make it active, learn-something time. I take out my mobile phone and study. I review my vocab list and look around at my surroundings for anything that I don’t know how to say in the language I’m studying, then translate and learn it. Sometimes these language study sessions last 15 minutes, sometimes 15 seconds, sometimes over an hour — it all depends on what’s going on around me.

To be honest, I spend so much time already tucked away alone in rooms writing that if I added language study to this mix I’d probably turn hermetic. I need to learn language on the move, in the streets, in the situations that I use it, and utilize my time as effectively as I can.

The true currency of travel is time, and I want to spend my travels traveling, not holed up in a little room bent over books studying. In point, few great acts have been achieved while waiting for a cook to grill up your hamburger. This is free time, take it.

The takeaways

Make use of the “in between” time in travel where you would otherwise be doing just about nothing to study language.

Use a notebook or an app like Google Translate to compile of list of words and phrases to study each day.

When you’re waiting for something, otherwise doing nothing, look around at your surroundings for anything that you don’t know how to say in the language you’re studying.

Wade Shepard is the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. He has been traveling the world since 1999, through 90 countries. He is the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China, and contributes to The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. Wade Shepard has written 3563 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

thanks for this post Wade, i remembered i have google translate in my ipad! …will definitely follow your tips. funny how you cant think of these simple steps when you’re busy. haha now i know 5 Mandarin phrases from google translate. is that chinese (simplified)? how come my “how are you?” doesn’t translate to ni hao ma?

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About Wade Shepard

I’m an itinerant writer who has been traveling the world since 1999, through 90 countries. I wrote Ghost Cities of China, a book which chronicles the two years that I spent in China’s new cities, and have another book about the New Silk Road coming out soon. I’m a regular contributor to Forbes, The Guardian, and the South China Morning Post, and I have been featured on BBC World, VICE, NPR Morning Edition, CNBC Squawk Box, CBC The Current … This is my personal blog where I share stories from the road that don’t fit in anywhere else. In other words, this is my daily diary, raw and real — it is not edited or even proofread. Subscribe below.